and the wall: The words wenaphelah chomath hair tachteyha, are literally, "and the wall of the city shall fall down under itself;" which appears simply to mean, that the wall shall fall down from its very foundation; which was probably the case in every part, though large breaches in different places might have been amply sufficient first to admit the armed men, after whom the host might enter to destroy the city. There is no ground for the supposition that the walls sunk into the earth. Isa 25:12, Isa 30:25; Co2 10:4, Co2 10:5; Heb 11:30

And they: The Canaanites were ripe for destruction; and God was pleased, instead of destroying them by a pestilence, a famine, or an earthquake, to employ the Israelites as the executioners of his vengeance. Had an angel been commissioned to slay them, who would have charged him with iniquity or cruelty? In all public calamities infants are involved; and tens of thousands of infants die in great agony every year. Now, either God is not the agent in these calamities (which opinion, though often implied in men's reasonings on these subjects, is not far from atheism); or they must consist with the most perfect justice and goodness.

adjured: This is to be regarded as a prediction, that he who rebuilded this city should lose all his children in the interim between the laying of the foundation to the completion of the walls. Num 5:19-21; 1Sam. 14:24-46; Kg1 22:16; Mat 26:63; Act 19:13